Monique Ryan backs expansion but urges wider student support
The Commonwealth Prac Payment will expand to students in 10 additional allied health professions, alongside existing support for nursing, midwifery, teaching and social work students.
The Government announced the change on 24 July 2026. New coverage includes clinical psychology, physiotherapy, occupational therapy, speech pathology, paramedicine, radiography, pharmacy, rehabilitation therapies, audiology and podiatry.
Independent federal member for Kooyong Dr Monique Ryan welcomed the expansion on 24 July 2026. However, she argued that the policy still excludes several healthcare courses from placement poverty relief.
Ryan has raised the issue in Parliament and with the Government. She argues that unpaid mandatory placements leave students struggling with rent, food and transport costs.
“I’ve been calling for extension of placement support for long time, and I’m really glad to see it delivered for ten more professions. In a cost-of-living crisis this is a sensible, well-focused policy measure, for which I congratulate the Education Minister, Jason Clare,” Dr Ryan said.
According to Ryan, some students have slept in tents, skipped meals or deferred courses because placement hours cut their ability to earn income. She linked that pressure to workforce shortages across much of healthcare.
2,000 to 4,000 placement hours
Despite the expansion, the payment still excludes medicine, dentistry, veterinary science, nutrition and dietetics, optometry and osteopathy students.
Ryan questioned why the policy now covers physiotherapy and podiatry but not medical and dentistry students. She called that gap unfair and unsustainable.
Medical students must complete between 2,000 and 4,000 hours of clinical placements. Ryan said that burden hits low-income, rural and regional students especially hard.
“A student’s family income shouldn’t determine whether they can become a doctor,” Dr Ryan said.
She said she will keep pressing the Government to extend paid prac to all care sector students.
